Someone claiming to be production staff on The Last Airbender explains why it all went horribly wrong

The Last Airbender, starring Dev Patel, wasn’t a hit with critics or fans of the original show (Picture: Paramount Pictures)

A member of the production staff on The Last Airbender has explained why the film wasn’t well received.

For those who can’t remember, The Last Airbender is an M Night Shyamalan-directed film based on the anime series of the same name.

Released in 2010, it starred Dev Patel, Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz (who recently appeared in Transformers: Age of Extinction) and Jackson Rathbone as Avatars who have the power to manipulate natural elements.

It received a mauling by critics when it came out, and also picked up a few Razzies – awards handed to the worst films of the year.

On a forum called Avatar Sprit (via The Film Stage), a user called Kyatto, claiming to have been a member of production staff on the film, blamed the producers for not having a clue about the original show.

They also said that the movie was ‘horribly budgeted’ and the final screenplay was a shadow of the original Shyamalan wrote, which producers Michael Dante Dimartino and Bryan Konietzko okayed.

They wrote: ‘Production wrapped 5 years ago so I don’t think Paramount is going to care. They know it bombed.

‘What it came down to was M Night really was the only one who knew the show and what he was doing (the first draft of the screenplay? gorgeous. hence Bryke giving him the okay). The producers, who are actually in charge of at least 80% of production including casting…. not so much. They clearly never bothered to watch the show, nor had the ghostwriter who did the final screenplay.’

(Picture: Paramount Pictures)

They added in a separate post: ‘[I]t was a fustercluck to say the least. Jackson Rathbone even made fun of it during his band tour after a while. At least Noah got more work afterwards so it wasn’t a total waste of talent I suppose.’

Kyatto also touched on the issue with the characters on the big screen being a difference race to the characters in the original cartoon.

‘If you recall they initially signed on Jesse McCartney as Zuko. Why? Because otherwise the lead actor roster would be “starring: two unknown kids you never heard of and that guy who played a minor character in Twilight!”‘ they said.

‘And then someone with a brain realized “wait a minute this show is kind of anime-esque and we’re hiring a bunch of white kids. Um.”. So what did they do?

‘Because they couldn’t can Nicola without someone being really ticked, Jesse willingly bowed out and went with another project offered at the time. Even still, they still needed a big name to draw people in but it couldn’t be another white kid.

‘Dev Patel just gave an Oscar-winning performance and was willing to sign on. And in getting him they had to make the rest of the Fire Nation match. Which is why it turned into heroic white kids VS evil brown people (which was intentionally unintentional).’

While we should be suspicious of the whether the person behind the post are who they say they are, they do seem to have a fair bit of insight. What do you think?